But the circumstance of being tantalized with the appearance of land, clothed with perennial verdure, whose approach was forbidden to men chilled with wet and cold, and nearly perishing with hunger, was by no means the most difficult against which the commander had to struggle. 'It was not the least of my distresses,' he observes, 'to be constantly assailed with the melancholy demands of my people for an increase of allowance, which it grieved me to refuse.' He well knew that to reason with men reduced to the last stage of famine, yet denied the use of provisions within their reach, and with the power to seize upon them in their own hands, would be to no purpose. Something more must be done to ensure even the possibility of saving them from the effect of their own imprudence. The first thing he set about, therefore, was to ascertain the exact state of their provisions, which were found to amount to the ordinary consumption of five days, but which were to be spun out so as to last fifty days. This was at once distinctly stated to the men, and an agreement entered into, and a solemn promise made by all, that the settled allowance should never be deviated from, as they were made clearly to understand that on the strict observance of this agreement rested the only hope of their safety; and this was explained and made so evident to every man, at the time it was concluded, that they unanimously agreed to it; and by reminding them of this compact, whenever they became clamorous for more, and showing a firm determination not to swerve from it, Lieutenant Bligh succeeded in resisting all their solicitations. This rigid adherence to the compact, in doling out their miserable pittance,--the constant exposure to wet,--the imminent peril of being swallowed up by the ocean,--their cramped and confined position,--and the unceasing reflection on their miserable and melancholy situation;--all these difficulties and sufferings made it not less than miraculous, that this voyage, itself a miracle, should have been completed, not only without the loss of a man from sickness, but with so little loss of health. 'With respect to the preservation of our health,' says the commander, 'during the course of sixteen days of heavy and almost continual rain, I would recommend to every one in a similar situation, the method we practised of dipping their clothes in salt-water, and to wring them out, as often as they become soaked with rain; it was the only resource we had, and I believe was of the greatest service to us, for it felt more like a change of dry clothes than could well be imagined. We had occasion to do this so often, that at length all our clothes were wrung to pieces.'